Blind with Rage

“Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.” Ephesians 4:26-27

Sin blinds and nothing darkens the vision of the soul like hatred. How quickly anger turns to bitterness, bitterness to hate and hate to wrath. The Christian should be marked by gentleness, love, forgiveness, and self-control not retribution. But forgiveness costs us something for Bonheoffer was right when he said “we can either make them pay for what they did or we can absorb the wrong.” Be angry at evil but do not let your anger be misdirected. Satan will empower the flesh to flash such hatred from your heart that you are struck blind with a lust for vengeance. Are you harboring anger toward someone? Is “love thine enemy” falling on deaf ears and a furious heart? Are you honest enough to admit that you harbor and nurture the sin of interior retribution? Are you making them pay in your mind? Violent emotion is so difficult to pull under control. E. Stanley Jones once wrote, “hate is sand in the machinery of life; love is oil, and life works much better with oil than with sand.” Forgive, love, and live. May Christ anoint our eyes with the salve of love. May he open our eyes that we may be set free from self-concern, aware of evil but not giving place to it in our lives.